Has Anyone Contracted Their Own Home When Building?

I've never built a home before, nor done the contracting but...

My daughter came home from a trip to Taos, New Mexico all fired up about Earthship homes. You would have to have a sizable lot, and evidently a sizable pocket load ($), but you can buy plans from them and even have them help you or build it for you. Mostly self-sustaining homes, built out of recycled tires (that's why you need a bigger lot!). Even if you don't go for the idea, you might want to look at the website just for fun: earthships.com

I've always heard that building your own home is pretty tough on a marriage.

Best of luck to you!
A.

We purchased and remodeled an existing home 2 years ago when our children were almost 2 and 5. Our remodel consisted of sanding, handscraping, and refinishing all wood floors downstairs (5 rooms plus halls); having all kitchen cabinetry refinished; laying new tile in 5 bathrooms, garage entry, and laundry area; recarpeting upstairs (4 rooms plus hallways and stairs plus downstairs master); ripping out and rebuilding new entertainment/shelving wall in family room; and repainting whole house (literally every surface including all trim with built-in shelving and cabinets, ceilings, walls, and some faux) we also had wallpaper torn out of 3 bathrooms and walls textured and painted. We wanted to hire a contractor for this work but had a short time frame between purchase and commencement of work plus a 3 week time frame to finish work before we moved in. No contractor was available on such short notice so we had to be the contractor ourselves. It was a headache as I had to do much of the management of when people would come in. It was very difficult getting contractors to show up when we needed them and to finish on time. One thing hinges from another, for example, when wood floors are being refinished with the poly coating, you couldn't enter the house as fumes were too strong and you couldn't get in any door and anywhere in the house without stepping on a wood floor therefore when the wood floor people went over schedule on time it delayed painting because the painters couldn't get in to work. We had scenarios like this on a regular basis and the 3 weeks I managed it drove me crazy. I don't think I could have handled contracting the building of a home from start to finish. 3 weeks of renovations was enough for me. Best of luck in your decision!

I can say that I, personally, within the next 5 years will help manage the building of our next home. I say go for it. BUT, you need people that you can trust.

My Husband is a Plumber, so that is taken care of. He IS THE BEST- a supervisor of a HUGE company in Little Elm, Frisco, Denton, Celina, and surrounding areas. Also, the house we currently own was a HUD home, so my Husband and I did alot of the work to "clean it up", but we recently had the Laminate hardwoods installed in about 70% of the house and tile in the rest. I know great quality workers for both (if you need someone reliable)

My Husband works with Builders everday. So, if you need reliable companies to do work like pour concrete, frame your house, roofers and such, let me know, I would love to help just for the "experience" and learning portion of it to prepare me for our home.

Being that my Husband is a contractor himself, one VERY important thing to consider, request, and require is that all subcontractors be licensed and insured, pull all the permits, and are supervised 100% of the time.

Good luck! :)

Several things to consider. First, are you going to go to a neighborhood owned by a builder and have that builder construct a home from their plans for you. If so, that is pretty much routine and you just choose from various options (type of carpeting, color of paint, wallpaper, appliances, etc.).

Second, if you are going to purchase your own lot and then find a builder, you should interview several builders. My ex-husband (we are friends) is a custom builder and he builds for people on their own lots. He helps you secure financing, but you are the one who obtains the loan, receives the draws and pays the subcontractors. This way, you control what is paid and there is no additional surcharge added to the builder. He charges a flat fee for his services of scheduling and supervising the subcontractors...plus, he has some very good subs who do work for him. His customers have been very happy, because they are involved in the entire process, but they don't have to worry about scheduling or about getting good subcontractors.

One comment about being your own contractor. Unless you know something about homebuilding, you may not be familiar with the order and scheduling of what comes next. It's not that you couldn't do it; however, it may not be something that you want to learn the hard way on your own home. Also, you may not be familiar with various subcontractors (concrete man for slab, plumbing work, electrical work, carpentry, bricklayer, etc.). Those contacts are something that an established builder will already have.

Finally, I have been a real estate/mortgage banking/title attorney for 20+ years. One thing that people don't realize is that under the Texas Constitution, there are very specific and limited ways in which you can create a lien on your homestead. This is important if you want to borrow money to build the home (does not matter if you have the cash to pay for it all yourself without a loan). In order to borrow, the bank will want a valid lien. Under Texas Constitution and statutes, you cannot act as your own contractor and create a valid lien. I have seen instances where people started to build their own house and then decided it was too difficult. Then they hired a builder to "complete" it. Unfortunately, the bank would not loan money, because they cannot get a valid lien (mortgage) on the property, because the homeowner started the construction. It is somewhat more complicated, but you should speak with an attorney before you decide to build your own home. This is especially important with regard to other things involved in construction and construction liens.

If you ever want to talk more about it (or if you would like to speak with my ex about building), feel free to email me at ____@____.com or call me ###-###-####). Good luck in whatever you decide.

Hi K.!
As the wife of a custom builder I would strongly caution you against it. There is a lot more that goes into building a home than meets the eye. Be cautious about what vendors may charge you for. Another consideration is your familiarity with permits and other technical details. When we built our own home a year ago, I was surprised at how many things I didn't realize went into the process and I've been around it for about 8 years now. Best of luck in whatever you choose to do!

We did not do that on the last 2 homes we built. It is certainly an option we would explore. Home building is he-$$ and I am not sure I would ever do it again with a builder.

I cannot stand the "builder" quality and what they try to push on the buyer. Building both homes was a nightmare due to having to deal with poor contractors who did not care about their job and/or hiding mistakes for us to find later. It is not that we were such perfectionists, we just wanted the job done correctly. We ended up in court after 2 house fires, gas leak, faulty wiring etc. The builder wanted to "come make it right" but every time they would come in the house they would destroy something else. Finally, we said get the ____ out of here and we took care of it ourselves with our own contractors.

Sorry about the builder bashing but I would certainly opt to contract my own people and know what type of work I am paying for. We have practically re-built our current home of 8 yrs and we did the same for the 1st home we built and closed on in 1992.

If anything...I suggest you be in their faces ALL the time. I was not working outside the home and I visited often, checked up on them often and I was not a total b--ch......I did bring refreshments often. You have to figure out how to "work" and "motivate" the contractors to work for YOU, the buyer.
Good luck

I am a realtor and have several custom home builders that I have faith in. Let me know if you decide to do this as they can provide you with referrals to help you decide who to use and what style you prefer.